The latest Rasmussen Reports statewide telephone survey of Likely Voters shows Brown picking up 48 percent of the vote, while Whitman draws support from 42 percent. Four percent prefer some other candidate, and six percent are undecided.

Last week, Brown held a similar 50 percent to 44 percent edge over Whitman. Support for Brown, a longtime Democratic figure in the state who previously served as governor from 1975 to 1983, has steadily risen from 40 percent in late August. Backing for Whitman, a former CEO of eBay, has declined slightly from a high of 48 percent in the same period.

The survey of 750 Likely Voters in California was conducted on Oct. 21, 2010, by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/-4 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC.